Applications are invited for a research associate to work on a speculative research project, recently funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). The project will start in September 2008 and run for 18 months. It will explore how our senses can be extended, and the implications of this, through augmenting them with novel ubiquitous technologies. It will draw from computing, philosophy and HCI perspectives. The successful candidate will work as part of an interdisciplinary team, comprising Prof. Yvonne Rogers (Open University), Prof. Andy Clark (Edinburgh University), Dr Simon Holland (Open University) and Dr Paul Marshall (Open University).

The project will look at how we can enable people to sense new aspects of the environment by designing tools that can extend their sense and self. In particular, it will investigate how new tactile technologies can be designed to extend people’s ability to see and hear – in motion and in music. Prototypes will be built that extend our senses and then studied in situ. In addition, the project will examine the implications for society at large. The idea of an extended mind has profound implications for our view of what it means to be human; it points to the potential to change the way we think and act by integrating new technologies and information sources. For example, if the mind can be thought to extend to our personal cognitive technologies, might the theft of a PDA, not be more appropriately prosecuted as grievous bodily harm?

Applicants must have excellent engineering and software skills that will enable them to build and evaluate the prototypes, plus an interest in the mind and philosophical issues of technology use.